06.25.13 06.25.13 >> from pacifica, this is democracy now! no apologies and i do not think the american people would expect me as commander in chief not to be concerned about information that might compromise their mission or might get them killed. >> as the united states attempts to hunt down edward snowden, new details emerge about the obama administration's crackdown on potential whistleblowers. under the insider threat

program, federal employees are urged to keep close tabs on co- workers and look for signs of a co-worker. "the onion" during a lunch break could be seen as suspicious. and then, eve ensler and "in the body of the world: a memoir." >> this is coakley and attend to return to my body and the body of the world and the earth. i was separated from my body as a child because of the violence that my father perpetrated on me, sexual and physical violence, that forced me to leave myself because it was too dangerous and painful to live in my body. by eveill be joined ensler are at and christina schuler deschryver.

and a ruling on affirmative action. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of national security agency whistleblower edward snowden is deepening after reports he landed in moscow sunday after leaving hong kong. the russian foreign minister certification a lavrov insists snowden never crossed the russian border. on a conference call with reporters monday, wikileaks founder julian assange said that snowden is safe. he is in a safe place. due to thes are high

bellicose threats coming from the administration, we cannot go into further details at the time. >> ecuador is currently considering his request for asylum while the u.s. has called for russia to expel him so he can face espionage charges. meanwhile the south china morning post says that he wanted to get proof of sweeping u.s. surveillance. he also told the paper that he plans to screen and release more documents of spine to other countries. the taliban has claimed responsibility for an early- morning attack near the presidential palace near the afghan capital of kabul. one of the targets was the ariana hotel, which houses a caa station. the attack came as journalists gathered for a news conference where president hamid karzai was supposed to discuss efforts of peace talks with the taliban.

casualtiesumber of is unknown with reports of as many as four attackers and three guards killed. meanwhile, in southern afghanistan, a roadside bomb killed 11 members of a family, including eight women. attacks in baghdad came as part of a wave of sectarian violence that has killed more than 2000 people since april. the supreme court has handed a key case on affirmative action back to a federal appeals court. the petitioner in the court, abigail fisher, is a white woman who accused the university of texas for rejecting her based on her race. the supreme court ordered the lower court to decide under a harsher standard. the supreme court also struck potential blows to workers who

allege sexual harassment and discrimination with a pair of decisions on monday. in the first case, the court narrowly defined a worker's supervisor as someone who can change their employment status, limiting legal protection. in a separate ruling, the court backed a tighter standard for workers to prove they had been the victims of retaliation after complaining about discrimination. both rulings were decided by a 5-4 vote. ruth bader ginsburg called on congress to overturn them with new laws. the proposal by republican senators bob corker and john havens would nearly double the number of border agents, expand the use of drones, and construct hundreds of miles of border fencing. in total, the plan would cost $40 billion over the next decade. the report spurred a dozen republicans to throw support

behind a reform bill that would extend an eventual path to citizenship of millions of undocumented citizens. the trial of georgia zimmerman for killing trayvon martin has opened in florida. during opening statements on monday, attorneys on each side cast conflicting views of zimmerman's motives on the night of the shooting. prosecutors say that zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, had profiled the 17-year-old as suspicious and chose to assume the role of a police of a search and followed him. he quoted his own words to a dispatcher. >> [inaudible] they always get away. those were the words from that grown man's mouth as he followed in the dark a 17-year-old boy who he did not know.

an excuse my language, but those were his words, not mine. >> these were his concluding remarks at the end of his opening statement on monday. >> we are confident, that at the end of the trial, you will know in your head, in your heart, in your stomach, that george zimmerman did not shoot trayvon martin because he had to. he shot him for the worst of all reasons, because he wanted to. thank you for your time. argueddefense lawyer george zimmerman killed trayvon martin because he feared for his life after he smashed his head into the sidewalk, which she said constituted a deadly weapon. he told a joke in the beginning of his remarks for which he later apologized. >> knock, knock. who is there? george zimmerman.

george zimmerman who? ok, good. you are on the jury. nothing? that is funny. >> texas house lawmakers have given approval to a sweeping anti-abortion bill that would shutter the state's abortion clinics. the state senate is set to take up senate bill 5 today. pro-choice demonstrators have .looded the capitol critics say only five out of 42 clinics would survive. on monday, the bill's republican statesponsor representative joe lautenberg said that rape victims could obtain an abortion by seeking rape kits at an emergency room where the woman could get "cleaned out." newly surfaced documents show the targeting of certain groups

for extra scrutiny by the internal revenue service extended beyond right-wing or tea party organizations. terms progressive, israel, and occupied all appeared on so- called be on the lookout lists used by employees reviewing applications for tax-exempt status. said theim irs chief agency has a limited the use of such lists and said there was a wide ranging set of categories and cases that spanned a broad spectrum. the irs has apologized for scrutinizing right-wing groups amidst a scandal that sparked the exit of several agency officials. former italian prime minister silvio berlusconi has been sentenced to seven years in prison for paying for sex with an underage girl and using his position to hide the act. acord also barred him from serving in public office again. burlesque sony is expected to keep his seat in parliament, however, during an appeal.

suggestedseff has that a series of political changes. the changes include investing more than $20 billion in public transit as protests continue monday. two women were struck by a car while blocking a highway in the capital of brasília, bringing the total number of people killed in the protest to four. turkish police arrested 20 people in the capital of ankara following protests. meanwhile, a police officer who fatally shot a police officer has been released. the ruling has sparked outrage, particularly because a video of the shooting went viral online. the video appears to show a police officer firing his gun and then running away. former south african president nelson mandela remains in critical condition in the hospital where he suffers from a

recurring lung infection. his grandson, mandla, spoke on monday. >> we are grateful to south africans and people of the global community you have shower the family with their prayers. we are hoping that my grandfather will recover steadily. he is under good care under the supervision of nurses and doctors which we have been grateful for their efforts and insuring that they are at his bedside and attending to him. >> in a landmark move for transgender rights, colorado state officials have ruled that a transgender first grader must be allowed to use the girls' bathroom in her school even though she was born male. the division of civil rights said that barring her from using the bathroom constituted discrimination. lgbt activists hailed the ruling to say that transgender students must be allowed to select restrooms to match their

gender identity. five people were arrested at the headquarters of yahoo! on monday while protesting the firing of a 11 wal-mart workers who went on strike earlier this month to demand higher wages. yahoo! cdo marissa meyer is on the board of wal-mart. "the nation" is reporting some form of retaliation after they participated in protests against the company. a website has published the suicide note of an era of war veteran who said he took his own life because the trauma of war left him in constant physical and mental agony. daniel summers had been diagnosed with ptsd and other conditions related to the war. he ran hundreds of combat missions as a machine gunner and carried out interrogations as part of the intelligence team in baghdad. later he worked with joint special operations command as a senior analyst. in a letter from the "phoenix new times" and in a letter that

he wrote two weeks ago, a hero come under my first appointment -- killed himself on june 10. he was 30 years old.

those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. >> welcome to our listeners and viewers around the country. with the day before the summer recess, the supreme court has handed down the first of four major decisions on civil rights, discrimination, and equality. on monday, the court ruled about rape and college admission. abigail fisher is a white woman who accused the university of texas for discrimination for rejecting her application. the court came down with an opinion which gave both sides reason to cheer. in a 7-1 decision, justices sent the case back to a federal appeals court and told to consider affirmative action under a harsher standard but also refused to overturn the decision and grutter v. for less which allowed

direct methods of affirmative action. >> although affirmative action in college emissions stays alive for now, it faces an uncertain future. it has long been the target a right wing groups, and there could be more lawsuits next year. meanwhile, a decision on racial equality could come today. the court is set to rule on the voting rights act. for more, we are joined by damon hewitt, director of the education practice group at the naacp legal fund. the group filed a number of cases on behalf of the black student alliance at the university of texas austin. saying whatt off by your responses to the supreme court ruling? it surprised many. >> certainly, the rat totally surprised. what the court event -- essentially told us was that the

lower court should more fitfully apply the existing standard. there is no new law coming of yesterday's decision. it is the same standard that always applies. at base, we think this is a victory for supporters of diversity and opportunity in higher education, and at this point, it is certainly a loss for abigail fisher's counsel who thought they would rather get a chance to undo what has been president for some time. >> i want to get your response to justice clarence thomas. he wrote in a concurring opinion that he wanted the court to hold the race in higher education admissions is categorically prohibited by the equal protection clause. he compared this to others use of segregation, calling them virtually identical. he added --

can you respond, and can you talk but would you expect to happen once this case goes back to the appeals court? assumesthe opinions fact, not evidence. it assumes social science that does not exist. a world thates ignores the fact that the supreme court's upheld affirmative action programs in grutter v. bollinger . the chief frustration of that opinion conveyance the court did not overturn, or decided in the first place. if you look at the citations to the different types of so-called evidence indicated in that opinion, it is in permission that predates the court's ruling in grutter v. bollinger, so it

does not even deal with contemporary law. to compare slavery and legally mandated segregation to affirmative action programs really defies logic. we believe most of the justices have rejected that and most americans would also reject that kind of logic as well. >> the petitioner in the case is abigail fisher, the woman who said she was rejected because she was white. in this online video, she builds her action as a challenge against discrimination. >> there were people in my class to have lower grades who were not in the activities and i was in and they were accepted, and the only difference was the color of our skin. a good way to stop the puck -- discrimination on applications is to get rid of the boxes that tell you your race. they do not tell the admissions people what kind of student you are. all they do is put you into a box.

>> officially, she is the plaintiff in the supreme court case, but that is not the whole story. what is not widely known is that the case was spearheaded by a man named edward blum, a former stockbroker. he recruited fisher after a long search for a stew and that could challenge affirmative action in court. he came across her because she happens to be the daughter of one of his friends. backed by a secret white ring group, he has ensured that wealthy right-wing donors are covering her legal bills. in this bill from 2008, he makes an open appeal for texas students to join his cause against affirmative action. >> this student here in houston, and thousands throughout the state of texas, have been unfairly punished after ut decided to reintroduce a race-based affirmative action. it is time for them to stop. i encourage all high-school students who have been rejected utnotfair.org.t

tell us your story. if you were rejected, we want your story, and we want to try to help you. >> according to reuters, edward blum has launched at least a dozen lawsuits against race- based protections in the united states, including the challenge to the voting rights act, which the supreme court could decide on today. damon hewitt, your response about his significance? >> we will not disparage any individual try to have access to the courts, but what we see here and what his organization has done, they are trying to tell america that race does not matter. what they are really saying is that the facts do not matter, the fact that abigail fisher would not have been admitted regardless of her race, based on undisputed evidence in the record. in the voting rights act case, which one of my colleagues

argued before the supreme court, that shelby county has one of the worst records of discrimination of any jurisdiction in the country. those facts do not matter to him, and that is troubling to us. that is why we believe the court will move in a cautious way. i wanted to read a quotation from you -- for you from ruth bader ginsburg who wrote the only dissent in the 7-1 ruling, noting fisher argued texas's top-10 law to achieve significant diversity.

the importance of what justice ruth bader ginsburg had to say. >> she has really put life to the notion that there is a dichotomy between race conscious and race neutral. when universities do today is really with respect to race consciousness. they want to manufacture some modicum of diversity. she also noted the danger of camouflage. the notion that without a full information of an applicant, people would make assumptions based on their surname or their given names. justice ginsberg is saying, let's be honest about what is really at play. let's not pretend that we cannot see race. many people would say in order

to claim cannot see race, you have to first technology to ignore it. >> a decision on voting rights could come down as early as today. >> it could, and we argued in the supreme court that the voting rights is still necessary. chief justice roberts said the south has changed, and that is true, but shelby county has not claimed -- changed as much as some would like to claim. hewitt, thank you for theg with us, a member of naacp ldf's fund. he launched their dismantling to "the school-to-prison pipeline: structuring legal reform." this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report.

when we come back, we'll look at the information that has come out of the national security agency. how much it knows about you. stay with us. [♪] [music break]

>> "school days" - chuck barry.

this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. >> as the media focuses almost exclusively on edward snowden's whereabouts, more details on the obama administration's program and whistleblower has come to light. snowden becomes the seventh person to be charged by the obama administration under the nearly 100-year-old espionage act. the crackdown on leaks has also extended to journalists. the administration seized the phone records of associated press reporters and the e-mails of fox news' james rosen. president obama said he made no apologies for seeking a

crackdown on leaks. >> weeks related to national security can put people at risk. it can put men and women in uniform that i have sent into the battlefield at risk. they can put some of our intelligence officers who are in various dangerous situations easily compromised at risk. i make no apologies and i do not think the american people would expect me as commander in chief not to be concerned about information that might compromise their missions or might get them killed. >> a new investigative report has unveiled the administration's crackdown expands beyond high-profile cases like snowden or the associated press to the vast majority of government agencies, even those but no connection to intelligence or national security. >> for nearly two years, the white house has waged a program "insider threat."

it targets government officials that leaks material, and beyond places like the national security agency and pentagon, it also covers agencies like the peace corps, the social security administration, department of agriculture -- agriculture, education. taken an online totorial called "treason 101" instruct them to account for employees fitting the profile of spies. the department of education have told its employees that certain experiences in life could lead to somebody becoming a spy. in addition to demanding that government workers monitor their

co-workers behavior, it even encourages penalties for those who could to report those of what they see. at pentagon strategy document instructs agency superiors to hammer the fact home, leaking is tantamount to aiding the enemy of the united states. all this leads mcclatchy to warn, this could make it easier for the government to stifle vital information to the public while creating toxic work environments. for more, we are joined by jonathan landay, and the intelligence reporter for mcclatchy newspapers. headlined is "obama's crackdown views leaks as aiding enemies of u.s." us,than, lay it out for what has this created? >> this was a program that was launched in the wake of the

wikileaks disclosures by private manning. it also follows the shooting at fort hood by -- allegedly -- major hassan. it follows a long history of attempts by the government to crack down on leaks of classified information. problem here, the definition, the instructions from the white house to the agency's, in implementing the program, is exceedingly broad. it has left many of the details to the agencies and departments themselves to implement. some of these departments we found are not only going after leaks of classified information but authorized leaks of any information at all. it involves what appears to be profiling by workers of their co-workers and admonitions to supervisors that they had better

make sure that any suspicious behavior is reported, because that could be a sign of a security risk among their staff. , it exhorts federal employees in agencies within the pentagon and others to treat leaks like espionage. if anybody beats to the press, that is likely to the enemies of the united states. we asked the pentagon how to you accommodate something like the league of the pentagon papers with this kind of policy, i.e., the league that showed governments to misled and lied to the american people about the conduct of the war in indochina, and we receive no direct answer from the pentagon. >> you spoke to a senior pentagon official who is critical of insider threat and said that it is about people's profile, how they interact at

work, are they cheery, what are they looking at on the internet? what do you hear about the kind of work environment this is creating in government? >> the work environment is already one where people who used to talk to me and a suspect other reporters are no longer willing to talk to us simply by fear that they will encounter retaliation for talking to a , not simply disclosing classified information, but try to give us context. in my experience, getting context about stories that we report normally, try to get an idea of how the u.s. government used a particular issue. knowof the people that i are no longer willing to even do that.

the environment, as a result of this, seems to be pretty toxic and there seems to be a possibility -- the distinct possibility that it could get even more toxic. onion" itoes "the into this? >> this was just a comment by an individual. critical ofis often the government, something that employees like to read during the lunch breaks. i think he was somewhat serious when he said, if employees are that reading "the onion," could perhaps be taken as a sign of anti-government bias on the part of the employee and people need to keep their eyes on this person. >> can you tell us to holon a

green stain it is? >> she is a former cia covert officer who believe that she was falsely accused of being a security risk. the after going through proper channels for reporting what she believed were violations of security and other cra, michael hayden. she and her attorney wrote to the cia inspector general and instead felt that she would be retaliated against and resign from the agency. you write and this program could create a lack of creative thinking that helped to lead to the invasion of iraq.

>> this was her observation, a store that i covered intensely for a few years. her point being, we know the senate intelligence committee -- i believe it was the intelligence committee -- found that there was groupthink within the intelligence community behind a false assessment at saddam hussein's had reactivated his weapons of mass destruction program. this is the kind of atmosphere that she believes could be created because of the insider threat program where you have people who are afraid to think outside the box, afraid to challenge whatever the majority opinion is, because it could attract attention to them as being a potential insider threat. this is about profiling, i think, in the end, which we know

is pretty problematic. i think one of the bigger problems here it is that the government always seems to react in the wrong way, and in an extreme way to this kind of thing, rather than try to tackle the core of the problem, which is the enormous number of people, almost 5 million, that have clearance and access to classified material. a lot of those people are contractors. and this goes way back to the over classification by the .overnment of materials one of the problems here is the more there is a perception that the government is doing the wrong thing by cracking down on civil liberties and privacy and doing things like collecting telephone data of millions of americans, the greater the chances will be that you will have a leak. there will always be someone who is going to feel that the

government has crossed the lines when it comes to the constitution and the law, and they will go and leak, because they do not trust the prescribed channels within the government for being a whistle-blower. we have seen what has happened to whistleblowers, thomas drake, you had him on the program, tonna greenstein, who tried report what they saw as being waste or fraud or abuse, and being retaliated against, rather than having their concerns addressed. >> critics have taken edward snowden to task for failing to use official channels to voice his concerns about government channels. this is the house intelligence committee chair mike rogers speaking on sunday. >> he went outside all the

whistleblower avenues available to anyone in the government, including people with classified information. we get visits every week in the committee from whistle-blowers. we investigate every one thoroughly. he did not choose that route. >> your response to the intelligence share? >> there is a history of people ,ho abuse the internal channels whistleblower channels within the government, and by the way, this includes colon two members of congress and try to get members of congress to address the whistleblower concerns. instead, congress has not only taken of some of these cases, but we have seen retaliation against whistle-blowers for bringing up legitimate concerns about waste, fraud, and abuse. there is a distinct lack of trust in congress, of congress,

of the system. i think you can only look at what has happened with the lack of accountability when it comes to the bush administration and aggressive interrogation techniques, the use of black sites, the warrantless wiretapping of americans of telephone communications by the bush administration. there has been no accountability at all among the senior people who oversaw all of this, so if you have to ask a question, why would someone lower down the ranks have any trust in the system at all? and wanted to switch gears ask you about your reporting on drones. you have reported about how the u.s. has killed four more people than it has claimed, specifically, targeting people that go beyond the mandate of senior al qaeda leaders.

can you talk to when you have uncovered? i came into possession of classified u.s. intelligence community reports on drone attacks in the tribal areas of pakistan. these are the first documents to emerge in public that outline targeting by the cia and drones of a legend and suspected militants in the tribal areas. thedocuments show that obama administration has been pretty economical about the truth of who they were targeting with this program, with the targeted killing program. and this goes back prior to the president's last speech on the targeted killing program. prior to that, there had been a

limited number of speeches, limited number of congressional testimony and interviews with the president and some of his top aides about this. they used a formula and all these pronouncements, and that formula was that they were only targeting confirmed senior operational leaders of al qaeda and associated forces who were plotting imminent and significant pilot attacks against the united states. sometimes you hear against u.s. interests, the homeland. these documents showed come in many cases, the cia actually did not know who they were targeting. they were targeting on the militants, other militants, foreign extremists, but it was quite evident from their own estimates of the number of casualties from these strikes

that hundreds of people who they suspected of being militants were being killed in these drone strikes. the documents and i concentrated on chart most of the drone strikes in the trouble areas over a period of a year that stretched from september 2010 to september 2011, which was the height of the drone strikes. almost a quarter of those strikes were targeted against non-al-qaeda groups. it shows that the administration had not been fully disclosing who it was targeting. i have spent a lot of time covering a part of the world, i have been to the tribal areas. whofact is, the militants

are based in tribal areas, some of them are very bad people. the fact is, they do not wear uniforms, and they dress the same as ordinary tribesmen in that area. that is an area where ordinary centuries, carry weapons. as part of their tradition. so you have these documents that raises questions about the so- called signature strikes. how do they know that who they were killing actually were militants. >> we have to wrap, but very briefly, i assume some of your reporting is based on classified documents leaked to you. i want to ask you how this has changed the way that you are doing investigative journalist

and, as it? started taking extreme precautions to protect my sources before the edward snowden case. it became obvious to me several years ago that there was a chance, because of the use of internet, cell phone, at my phone could be used to track my sources. i will now take extreme precautions. i will not go into what i do. it is obvious what you can do to protect yourself. i began doing that before the edward snowden case. >> jonathan landay, thank you for being here. his most recent piece is "obama's crackdown views leaks as aiding enemies of u.s." when we come back, i eat and slurred joins us to talk about

the body of the world. [♪] [music break] . [♪] [music break]

>> music by daniel summers. he was the iraq war veteran who killed himself on june 10 after blaming the u.s. government. the song is called "country fear." >> we spend the rest of the hour with someone who has fought tirelessly for women's rights here and around the world, eve ensler .. she is the creator of "the vagina monologues" and v-

day, a day dedicated to stopping violence against women and girls. out with aer are is new memoir called "in the body of the world: a memoir." she shares her painful relationship with her body and how it has changed, from being raped by her father, to battling anorexia, to being affected by the turn cancer. she writes -- he's enstar is here with us in new york. we are also joined by kristine- good deschryver, a congolese rights activist.

she and eve will be speaking about the city of joy tonight here at a media event. it is great to have the both in the studios again. eve, you are on a worldwide tour, "in the body of the world: a memoir." what is your message in the book? >> for those of us that have a lot of usauma -- have been through trauma, the iraq war veteran that we spoke about -- anything that separates from our bodies and their cells and we progressively become more detached from our hearts, ability to be compassionate, our connection to our own bodies, and from the earth and each other. for me, the journey back to my body has taken many years to get back inside after suffering

enormous violence when i was younger. there have been many paths to get back, but when i got during cancer, i suddenly woke up after nine hours of surgery with all kinds of body parts missing and rearranged, but for the first time in my life i was in my body. what i refer to as the cancer conversion was this journey that went for about nine months when i went through infections and chemotherapy. by the end of it, i was back inside. what it has made me aware of is the more inside ourselves we are, the more connected we are to other people and the plight of other people. but also to the earth itself. youould you explain how came to this conclusion and talk about your healing journey? >> the journey with cancer was arduous and difficult. i had staged 3/4 cancer. it had invaded parts of me so a lot of it had to go.

when the interesting parts of the journey was when i had to go for chemotherapy, because i was absolutely terrified of chemotherapy. i was not going to do it, i was too scared. and old therapist came by of know where to help me, and she gave me a frame for it, to see if the cancer as an empathetic warrior, something that was not for me, but for all the perpetrators, and i got to poison them and they would never come back. that allowed me to go into chemo and say, i am now going to get rid of all of these things in my body pat have prevented me from living in my body. my trauma, pain, shame, sro. as that was going on, we were building city of joy in the congo. christine was on the front lines of doing that. our relationship and my connection to making that happen, living for that to

happen, allow me to keep going. so there was a synergy between the two. >> i want to talk about the city of joy in the context of a new study that says more than a third of women around the world are insulted by a partner. violence against women is a global epidemic. >> this report brings together data on the prevalence of different forms of violence against women and it shows that the problem is widespread and unacceptably high. one in three women globally are affected by either physical or sexual violence from a partner, or by a non partner. violence against women is a global problem. it is widespread in all regions. >> according to the study, 40% of the women killed worldwide were slain by a partner. christine schuler deschryver is also with us, the founder of

city of joy. even ensler is also with us, author of "in the body of the world: a memoir." christine, what is the city of joy? >> they used to say that," was the worst is to be a woman, but i think the city of joy is one of the best. we do not assist women, we empower them. this is a v-day program. we have already trained 222 women. they have different trainings, and when they go back into their they are sort of role models to become leaders. >> why do they come to the city of joy, who are these women? >> these are girls and women from 15 to 30, and all are survivors of gender violence. we have worked with local and to's and we have different ngo's, and wecal

have different criteria, we interviewed them, and then we select 90 of them to come to the city of joy, and they stay for six months. >> city of joy took part in 1 billion rising? >> of course, and we had the privilege to have the chancellor with us, and most of our withders, -- eve ensler us, and most of our founders, and we have so many people involved, including the general of the army signing a commitment. the police, army supporting the women. until now, the impact is huge. >> christine is so modest. what is really happening with city of joy is we are seeing incredible transformation. we are seeing girls who arrived children who are the products of

rape and them being able to love their children. people who arrive with bullet wounds who end of open houses for elderly people. people who are unable to function and have suffered rape and are now running restaurants. we see this incredible and immediate transformation because the program is so full of therapy, healing, training, agricultural training, computer training, and there is massive therapy that happens in a community context. >> why the democratic republic of congo? years, i have been traveling the globe and have been visiting places some of around the world since some pretty horrible stuff. when i got to come go seven years ago and the i was sitting with our partner, in the hospital, listening with christine, who was my translator.

that is when we bonded and we do get to work together. we listened to the stories we were hearing. i think even she had not heard the stories. it was so horrific, the level of atrocities, what was happening to women's bodies, and the numbers, were so excruciating. i felt that if we did not stop here and focus on the," , it would not only spread, but it would basically say, i came, i saw, and i left. we are talking about 8 million people dying in the congo. at least 2 million women have been raped. the statistics will not tell you that, but i have yet to meet a woman that has not suffered violence. >> you talk about your cancer in the context of all these atrocities you have witnessed. can you talk about this symbiotic relationship that you described? >> i think one of the things that i feel is, when we suffer, and when we listen to trauma, we

cannot underestimate what it does to our bodies. where does trauma go? i wish people would look a studies of people with these reproductive cancers and trauma. so many women i know that have been raped or abused or beaten, or listening to the stories, are getting sick. we hold trauma, it goes into us. winning places like city of joy where people can perch -- purge that trauma. >> do you feel that you have been able to reduce the violence in the congo? >> we do not have the potential to say that we have reduced. first of all,," is a country and the government is to play its role. that is the role of the government. we would bring -- in the mentality of people

not to just sit down and wait for everything. seeds ofeating revolution, but like in the pacific revolution, when we did the campaign a few years ago, it was for a woman to take back their power. our bodies belong to us. we can decide for our bodies. now we can slowly see the change in the mentality. also with the 1 billion rising, most of the women did not know the different kinds of violence. they thought it was just right. in that way, i can see a huge change in the condo. -- change in,", . .> eve ensler >> we are putting together videos from around the world

spirit it is astonishing of what happened to run the world. this year we are about to launch 1 billion rising for justice, which will be a bigger action. we are launching on thursday. you can go to vday.org. really this campaign is asking on the men and women who love them to go to the places where they deserve and are entitled to justice. court room, police station, home, military operation, and to release your story, in whatever form, anonymously, dancing, screaming, to say the time has come for women to get justice, and then we are going to dance again. we have monique wilson who is leading the campaign who literally got the philippines to rise. we have 30 corridors around the world who are leading the campaign. it is going to be amazing.

>> thank you both for being with us. efense lawyer, -- eve ensler, her new book is called "in the body of the world: a memoir."